Key Issue #1

Where is the world's population distributed? 
pgs. 47-53


Population Concentrations/ Sparsely Populated Regions: 
Two thirds of the earth's population are clustered into four regions:

  • East Asia
  • South Asia
  • Southeast Asia
  • Western Europe


World Population Cartogram (http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/world-population-cartograms-47012201)















Most people live in the ecumene, the portion of Earth's surface occupied by permanent human settlement, around an ocean or near a river, as opposed to the interior of a landmass. This is because of the fertile soil and climate in these low lying areas. People tend to avoid areas that are extremely dry, wet, cold, or mountainous because the environment is too harsh for living. Fortunately, the Earth's ecumene is expanding thanks to technology such as air conditioning, heating, and transportation of food and supplies.


Population Density:
Certain measures of density help geographers describe the distribution of people compared to the available resources. Arithmetic density, the total number of people divided by the total land area, is also known as population density. Geographers can use this this information to compare two conditions in different countries. 

Population Density Map (http://blue.utb.edu/paullgj/geog3320/lectures/populationgeography.html)


Physiological Density is the number of people supported by a unit area of arable land. Arable land is land suited for agriculture. The use of physiological density shows the relationship between the size of the population and the availability of resources in said area.
Arable Land of the World (http://profy.com/2007/02/20/walmart-invades/)


Different economic conditions help show the agriculture of land. Agricultural density is the ration of farmers to arable land. This is used with physiological density to examine a the relationship between population and resources in a country. 

World Leaders in Agriculture (http://www4.agr.gc.ca/AAFC-AAC/display-afficher.do?id=1205773523754&lang=eng)



Current Event:
This article explores globalization and agriculture in the country of China. This article's opinion is that McDonalds is corrupting the beauty of a country's culture, in which case I agree. After further research from the second page, you will find that there are several places  that McDonalds in invading and globalizing. Using arithmetic density equations, McDonalds is able to figure out where they should place another store to make decent profit.